In 2017 Jenny was asked to contribute to a publication by Thames & Hudson for the V&A. Two of Jenny’s quilts are featured in Patchwork & Quilting: A Maker’s Guide, ‘Designed by teachers and practitioners at the leading edge of today’s craft revival, the projects are both functional and fashionable’.

The Paper Round Quilt is a fun and modern quilt featuring Jenny’s Triple Drunkard’s Path block. Combining curved and traditional straight piecing with a bold, large-scale design, this project is a perfect introduction to curves for the adventurous quilter. In this two-day class you’ll learn all of Jenny’s tips and tricks for how to sew curves with no pins while you work on the Twin or Throw sized Paper Round Quilt.

You get to play with Jenny’s Quilting Templates and get a 10% discount on all templates if you decide you ‘need’ your own set.

Fun fact: Jenny’s Paper Round Quilt is well traveled; it was chosen to be part of the MQG Showcase at Quilt Festival in Houston 2018 and has been juried into Quilt Con 2019 in Nashville!

The classic New York Beauty block made modern in this exciting design! In this class you’ll be using Jenny’s Drunkard’s Path templates and foundation paper piecing (FPP) pattern. You’ll learn how to cut, sew and press perfect curves using Jenny’s no-pin technique and how to use the FPP technique to sew precise shapes. Make a a bouquet of Jenny’s NYB flowers/thistles/cogs and design your own version with Jenny’s help.

You get to play with Jenny’s Quilting Templates and get a 10% discount on all templates if you decide you ‘need’ your own set.

So I got some cool makers involved, let’s call them the Ghosts of Christmas for now, in the hope that they’d infuse me with some Christmas spirit. I’ll share some of their work below but I can say this, I’ve been converted and there’s even a tree skirt and a Bah Humbug Quilt in the works. But first I’d like to tell you a bit about Spruced Up.

This is a pattern I’ve had sitting in my Touchdraw file for years. But because I’m Scrooge, I didn’t fancy sharing it. Bah Humbug. Who makes Christmas quilts anyway? Quite a few of you I’ve realised after mentioning the design here and there. Yes, sharing my ideas has never been a problem, I just used to struggle with sharing my patterns.

Spruced Up is made with three sizes of Drunkard’s Path.

The pieces above makes up a new set. It’s in my shop and it’s called Basic Drunkard’s Path Set. It contains all the pieces you need to make the Spruced Up Block (the 1 3/4”, 3 1/3” and 7” Drunkard’s Path, all with the nifty square-up tool). If you already have the Combined DP Set you’re sorted too.

The Combined Drunkard’s Path Set:

And all my patterns come with paper versions of the templates as well.

I’ve kept the block clean of any garnish so it can be left as is, without being spruced up..

There’ll be a competition to see who does the most Christmassy decoration. All you need to do is share your pictures on IG with #spruceduppattern and your Pimped Pine is in the draw. There’ll be prices along the way too so remember to show me your work in progress. At the Advent finale I will pick my favourite finished block.

The pattern is available to buy in my shop pappersaxsten.com/templates or through Sew in the City, my LQS. Sew in the City is hosting a Spruced Up Workshop on November 16th.

And a big thank you to Carina Envoldsen-Harris and Saija Kiiskinen who I might have bullied into playing along. I sent my own block to Carina to do her thread-magic to:

And Saija made her her Spruced Up Cushion in super cool Marimekko. Saija has also blogged about it here.

I’ll leave you for now, not with a Bah Humbug but with some more inspiration from Saija.

]]>https://pappersaxsten.com/spruced-up-pattern-release/feed/3903From pattern-writing to release (or How to extract a combine harvester from a barn):https://pappersaxsten.com/from-pattern-writing-to-release-or-how-to-extract-a-combine-harvester-from-a-barn/
https://pappersaxsten.com/from-pattern-writing-to-release-or-how-to-extract-a-combine-harvester-from-a-barn/#commentsFri, 07 Sep 2018 13:23:21 +0000http://pappersaxsten.com/?p=770Continue reading From pattern-writing to release (or How to extract a combine harvester from a barn):→]]>School’s back, Autumn is here and it’s time to muster up some courage to get the combine harvester out of the barn (just stay with me on this one).

I’ve turned, planted and pruned (I should’ve paid more attention to Gardener’s Question time) so many fields and varieties for so many years but never got the combine harvester out of the barn. It was just too big and intimidating to deal with on my own.

The Footloose Quilt- My second pattern is another Drunkard’s Path design. I used my Triple Drunkard’s Path templates together with the Blueberry Park Fabric by karenlewistextiles.com to make a fun and graphic pattern that introduces three sizes of the classic Drunkard’s Path and my no-pin technique to anyone with a curve urge. I had a great template that Kam created but no software or hardware and I still needed help with tech-editing.

So, I got some help from another quilty friend. One I was lucky to meet in person before she escaped this Island. Julie Zaichuk-Ryan southatlanticstitchingcompany.com is no stranger to manoeuvring combine harvesters (a metaphor for releasing patterns, but you probably got that by now). She has written and had published knitting, embroidery and sewing patterns, and have a background in technical and marketing writing. I’d like to keep her to myself but I feel I should mention that she’s happy to take on more pattern-writing and tech-editing projects.

I’ve put together two fabric kits for making the quilt-top: Footloose Quilt Fabric Kit in Melon and Parakeet. And you can get both versions from Karen karenlewistextiles.com/footloose

The Triple Drunkard’s Path Set can be found in my shop but all my patterns include paper templates as well.

This pattern can easily be made into a double-sized quilt by making four tops that are then sewn together.

The Paper Round Quilt- My third Pattern is out tomorrow and as it’s on a very exciting journey, I will try to write a separate post about that.

But until then…..here is the link for the Make Modern Magazine Subscription:

If you sign up now, you will get 7 issues for the price of 5 in your first year, then 6 issues annually (still for the price of 5 at AU$40).

There is also a link to just issue 24 Makemodernmagazine/Issue24 and if you use it with this discount code, MM2446, you get to purchase the issue for only AU$6 for 48 hours after it is published (expires 9 September).

So, the Combine Harvester made it out of the barn finally. My next goal is that I will be able to take it for a ride without my dear friends. If I want. Or I’ll keep turnin, planting and pruning and leave the harvesting to Kam and Julie.

]]>https://pappersaxsten.com/from-pattern-writing-to-release-or-how-to-extract-a-combine-harvester-from-a-barn/feed/2770RJR Fabrics #whatshadeareyouhttps://pappersaxsten.com/rjr-fabrics-whatshadeareyou/
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 09:00:25 +0000http://pappersaxsten.com/?p=609Continue reading RJR Fabrics #whatshadeareyou→]]>Every week RJR Fabrics presents us with a quilt made by a maker that they’ve been giving free reins to use their Cotton Supreme Solids. I’ve been following this on IG for a long while and when I got the chance to make a quilt of my own, I jumped at the opportunity. I’ve written a blog post (my first) mainly about the process of making my Paper Round Quilt but also a little bit about me. You can also find this, and a giveaway of the fabrics used, on RJR Fabrics’ blog http://quiltwithlove.com/ . Here we go and thank you for joining in:

My name is Jenny, I’m a Swedish quilter in Sheffield. I’ve been in the UK for nearly two decades and moved to South Yorkshire from London two years ago. I’m trained as a pattern cutter and have been sewing my whole life but I’ve been making quilts full time for the last 5 years. With no graphic design background I just make what I like and most of the time that involves a curve. I love using the computer to design as it’s very exact (a habit from my pattern cutting days perhaps) and because my drawings by hand never turn out the way it looks in my head. At the moment I’m using Touchdraw on an iPad Mini that I share with my kids (not ideal but restrictions can be good, right?). I’m dreaming of a bigger screen, Adobe InDesign and Illustrator.

My main tool when making curves are my custom templates (#pappersaxstentemplates):

I often use one of the shapes as a restriction/rule when designing. Or, if I’ve got a new shape/template in mind, I’ll start my design around that. http://pappersaxsten.com/templates/

The #paperroundquilt was no exception. I had just released the Triple Drunkard’s Path set (#tdptemplate) and I was playing with the shape:

The design I came up with reminded me of newspapers stacked up ready for the paper round and I immediately thought of RJR Fabrics Cotton Supreme Solids for the quilt.

The chart they sent me had all the colours I love and choosing was easier than I’ve ever experienced. This is my pick:

The colours have altered a smidgen but apart from that, I did not stray far from the original design (thank you Michelle for your input). This is the norm for me at the moment but maybe the future will give me more time to experiment, go crazy, step on the orange (the latter is a blogpost in itself). I now particularly like the kick of that light blue newspaper on the top of the pile:

I did find it a bit jarring at first and I nearly unpicked/and remade that part. Now I’m very happy I kept it. My Swedish “matchy, matchy” aesthetic needs an ice cube down it’s neck sometimes or it will all get too safe and cozy. The top went together beautifully thanks to these lush solids. These fabrics are easy to cut, sew and press. They really live up to the Supreme part of the name.

When it comes to quilting I’ve got lots of ideas but my tiny domestic machine is not ideal for what I had in mind. Instead I went looking for a longarmer. I love the graphic quilting designs of Cristine Perrigo and Jodi Robinson but the cost of shipping and customs and the wish to use a more local quilter made me ask around on my home turf. Joë Bennison’s name popped up more than once and I’m very happy she could take this on. These are my initial drawings for Joë:

The photos of the finished quilt are taken in the Antiques Quarter in Sheffield by Lee Thompson. I love working with Lee as he always surprises me and finds an angle I would never have thought of.

There are lots of exciting things happening involving this quilt that I can not yet mention but I can tell you this:
Making this quilt and working with RJR Fabrics has been big for me as it led to a collaboration with artist Cecilia Björk, one half of Artyfact Gallery in Sweden, and to our exhibition ‘Art Quilt’ at that Gallery at the end of March.

Sign up to my mailing list for news on the pattern release (yes, it will happen this year!) and any other curvy news.

Quilt designer Jenny Haynes of Papper, Sax, Sten will guide you through a range of techniques to cut and sew a throw-sized quilt. Selecting your own choice of fabric colours, you’ll create your own version of Jenny’s Curved Log Cabin pattern, a bold design as featured in the recent publication ‘Patchwork and Quilting: A Maker’s Guide’ (Thames & Hudson / V&A Publishing).